After nearly a year of talking about the games we’d like to make, my friends and I have finally gotten to committing time and making progress on our dream mobile game: a slow-paced, relaxing resource-management/cafe role-playing game. Neko Atsume meets Animal Crossing meets a super simple Diner Dash.

It’s interesting returning to a game design and UX design role outside of class and industry and addressing problems with only my peers, sans mentor. I’m finding I’m running into a lot of new problems that I’ve never come across during previous projects, though maybe that’s because I’ve learned enough to the point that I’m noticing details that I didn’t have the capacity to see previously. Vertical or horizontal scrolling on a phone? What happens to a text space when its not in use? How do we take care of edge cases for text length, like “vanilla-bean drizzle scone”? In that sense, noticing all of these details, I’m happy that I’ve grown.

But I’m also questioning how much time I should spend trying to find the best solution for a problem. At what point does the fun-level drop off? Can I afford to take time away from my other research work? Should I be treating this like a Game Jam or a potentially publishable product?

I’m sure if I took the time to, I could come up with ten different menu layouts to address how the user purchases a new cafe food. I could research and play ten different resource-management games and take notes on what works and and doesn’t work for navigation. I could have a professor tear the game design apart.

I guess what it boils down to is that two of us are starting school in August, and our one other team member is starting work next month as well. We’re in the last couple-week stretch, and we need to get snappy. Whatever awaits us at the end, I’m excited for it.

On a different note, I’m honestly really surprised our team hasn’t had a single major argument over any issue in our foray into indie game design. Even though we went into this project with one vision for the game (a fun, relaxing, eye-candy filled game with turtles), we haven’t reached an impasse on any design decision on how that vision would unfold. In my two other game projects, we’ve had many heated arguments from angel sprite design to whether there should be easy levels. And I’m sure my team members have had their fair share of tiffs.

Maybe it’s because we spend over three months on and off just discussing potential mechanics and cutting away at stuff we knew wouldn’t work and wouldn’t like (or maybe we’re secretly triplets separated from birth). This situation reminds me of the article A Sense of Where You Are; the writer talks about his trials and tribulations managing the timeline for developing products. He found most circular and pointless arguments could be avoided if the team spent more time in the Understand stage of the processing, ensuring that everyone is on board with fundamental objectives. This way, down the line, decisions on nitty gritty details could be made more quickly since everyone was facing it with the same mental model of the product.

Hopefully next time I want to do a project with friends, it will not stall as long as Turtle Time did, but I am glad we spent so much time figuring out what we all wanted out of the game, from mechanics to atmosphere. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but it will be worth seeing little pixel turtles slow walk their way to a bagel and coffee.

]]>https://geechristine.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/personal-projects-thoughts-on-making-an-indie-game/feed/0screen_shot_2016-07-13_at_2.27.10_pmchristinegeengprofileEmotionally Durable Designhttps://geechristine.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/emotionally-durable-design/
https://geechristine.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/emotionally-durable-design/#respondSun, 29 May 2016 14:01:45 +0000http://geechristine.wordpress.com/?p=31More Emotionally Durable Design]]>I’m one of those people who’s guilty of only wearing a pair of boots twice because I saw and purchased a more stylish pair the following week. Sure, I could donate those boots to alleviate my guilt of being wasteful, what about when I do this again? Is there any way for me to not want to throw out my old clothes, for newer, shinier, better objects?

Jonathan Chapman provides an interesting alternative/addition to the paradigm for sustainable living of reduce, re-use, and recycle that is well-accepted today. Instead of trying to find solutions for the symptoms of human consumption, such as finding ways to deal with things people throw out, designers to should try to solve the root of the problem: human beings get tired of objects.

Chapman says people throw out stuff because it no longer reflects themselves as they grow and change: “Waste then is a symptom of expired empathy, a kind of failed relationship that leads to the dumping of one by the other.” Therefore, objects need to be designed to grow with a person (like a house plant) or retain some sort of indication of usage or memories with the user (like a teddy bear). Or it needs to appear to have sentience and dependability on the user (like a Tamagotchi) so the user feels responsibility or need to take care and use an object. As Bill Brown states in Thing Theory, “ we look through objects (to see what they disclose about history, society, nature, or culture-above all, what they disclose about us),” but “we begin to confront the thingness of objects when they stop working for us: when the drill breaks, when the car stalls, when the windows get filthy, when their flow within the circuits of production and distribution, consumption and exhibition, has been arrested, however momentarily.” Disobedience, unexpected feedback, and surprising interactivity has the potential to elevate an object’s meaning and presence in the user.

This was written in 2005, before smartphones and apps became as ubiquitous as it is today. The apps in the phone can change and be deleted and redownloaded at the whim of the user. There are hundreds of thousands of options for people to choose from to go with their changing needs and lifestyles. But people still throw out usable phones for newer versions when they come out every year. Though Chapman was talking about electronics in his book, maybe smartphones don’t apply as well, since he was talking about objects that are already designed to be physically durable (and iPhones are sort of well known for how easy they break and are planned to go obsolete).

Some of the work Chapman and his students have done include teacups which have engraved designs appear when tea has stained the cup, and Puma shoes which have designs appear when the material gets worn down. (My friend said it would be cool to have a graphic tee where it could be re-printed or the design could change whenever you want, while preserving the original tee. That would be pretty sweet.) The artist Walead Beshty has created works exploring how the meaning of objects is elevated through human interaction. His 2009 sculptures of Fedex boxes made out of copper collect memories of every person who has handled them, in the form of fingerprints and smudges on the patina.

Walead Beshty

Imbibing objects with memory and meaning, to transform it as the user grows as well, can be found in Kintsugi, a Japanese tradition meaning golden repair. Broken pottery is repaired with lacquer mixed with gold or other precious metals, and “Chances are, a vessel fixed by kintsugi will look more gorgeous, and more precious, than before it was fractured.” “Some contend that many Japanese have come to cherish the imperfection of a broken pot repaired in this way….seeing it as a creative addition and/or re-birth to the pot’s life story. Others say that when something has suffered damage and has a history, it becomes more beautiful.”

Emotionally durable design is a pretty interesting concept. We look for things to identify with all the time: people, movies, Shindan maker roulettes. Or we look for things that surprise us and question our perspective of the world. It’d be interesting to make objects that reflect people’s actions or inactions with them. With smaller and smaller electronics being made and accessibility to build with these things increasing, along with innovation in material design, interactivity within everyday objects can be something to look forward to in the future.

]]>https://geechristine.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/emotionally-durable-design/feed/0kintsugichristinegeeng51j2b6ymqsrl-_sx331_bo1204203200_dukestreet_installation_09_3blog-dsc_15951post-16845-love-love-fades-away-tom-haver-bgsmpost-16845-things-are-forever-tom-haverf-ubofUX Design in Splatoonhttps://geechristine.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/ux-design-in-splatoon/
https://geechristine.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/ux-design-in-splatoon/#respondWed, 08 Jul 2015 00:43:58 +0000http://geechristine.wordpress.com/?p=3More UX Design in Splatoon]]>I’m not a fan of gritty shooters, but I am a fan of Nintendo’s off-the-wall game designs, so I immediately grabbed Splatoon when it came out. And I was not disappointed. Given how often I’ve been playing this recently, I thought I’d talk about less discussed but still interesting aspects of Splatoon’s user experience design.
Splatoon (c) Nintendo

The bulk of the gameplay is a 4 vs. 4 player match involving covering turf with ink and splatting opponents. You play an Inkling who can shoot ink, but more importantly can transform into a squid and swim through one’s ink. Pretty much as crazy-awesome as plumbers that eat flowers to turn into fire-breathing curry machines.

Upon opening the game, you’re greeted with news by Callie and Marie, squid sisters and Inkopolis’ music idols (thanks for sexualizing squids Nintendo). One of my biggest gripes is that you always have to spam-click A to get them through their dialogue about which of the stages (on a 4-hour rotation) will be in-game. They have a lot of (repeating) comments about each of the stages, so if I want to play a quick 3-minute match I first have to get through their cute-but-tedious Squidanese. I can find out the current stages in-game anyways, so really the only time their mandatory news blasts would be needed are for updates or events like Splatfest.

Next is Inkopolis Plaza, gateway to all other parts of the game. On the main screen, you can see all of the physical locations of stores, NPCs, and Inklings that you have recently played matches with. On the Gamepad screen is an overhead map of the plaza with links directly to the same stores you can walk to. This takes some of the immersion out of the game, but in the long run it’s a great decision to streamline the buying process (I know I’d get lost looking for the stores). Also, walking from Inkling to Inkling to see their Miiverse posts provides me with enough exploration of the fun environment.

Inkopolis

The Gamepad also allows access to the equipment screen. Navigation is designed well enough that I don’t even think when I toggle through my different beanies and headphones. Inventory is consistent with the store screens, with main navigation on the bottom. Each of the categories can be accessed with A. Specific items on focus can show special ability info with X. Being able to navigate with weither L/R or side toggle is good for people who might be used to one or the other. A minor problem though is having to click B to go back to the main categories when a simple down toggle, given the layout, would suffice.

It’s interesting that under each weapon is the amount of ground it’s covered with paint. The numbers don’t mean much to me, but it would be cool to see statistics of ground covered and kills for each weapon compared to one another. (I know I’m decent with the .52 Gal and Squelchers, but I fail spectacularly with chargers.)

In terms of worldbuilding, Nintendo does an amazing job creating a colorful squid-based metropolis that makes it fun visiting NPCs over and over again. Take Spyke: an urchin in a back alley who upgrades your equipment in exchange for sea snails. What do urchins eat in real life? Snails. What little creatures surround his humble mat/home? Quivering snails…

He says he doesn’t need the shells of the snails…

Something really noticeable about Splatoon’s lobby is that you can’t back out once in the match queue, unless you shut off your Wii U. I chalk this up to the dev team trying to ensure players don’t have to wait too long for 8 players to all join, given they couldn’t predict the amount of sales. Good news is the game’s sold over 1 million copies, and players are currently matched from all over the world rather than locally, so we’ll see if this changes.

The design during matches really helps me understand what’s going on despite the chaos of 8 players spraying/rolling/exploding paint all over the map. When I hit an opponent, I get feedback with splat sound effects and the on-screen reticle lighting up. When my special attack is ready, my squid tentacle-hair sparkles and flaps (easy for opponents to see as well).

There’s no on-screen minimap because it’s on the gamepad, which you can look down at if you dare (I for one have been splatted countless times while distracted assessing enemy movements). You can see your teammates (as little squid-shaped arrows), but you can’t see your enemies unless they have your team’s ink on them or someone uses a special attack.

This game is easy and fun to get into with a short single player campaign, but what really keeps me playing are all the multiplayer modes. It’s a great experience with plenty of small details to bring me more joy as I drown my enemies in neon yellow ink.

]]>https://geechristine.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/ux-design-in-splatoon/feed/0spratoonboxchristinegeengSplatoon (c) NintendoSquidformation. Photo from http://splatoon.nintendo.com.Inkopolisequip_menuHe says he doesn't need the shells of the snails...